Its my turn and Its time to Dance!

I'm so excited!  And super nervous.  If you've been following along with the 6 Degrees of Separation Tour, then you've seen some great stuff already.  Its amazing.  If you haven't, take a minute, hour really, to go back and start at the beginning on Freenotion with Becca.  We are at the end today, I can't believe it.  Lots of great inspiration to take a way though so don't forget to check them all out!  Plus when you're done with that you can poke around the Sew the Show blog and Facebook page for year long fun!

The night we picked our movies, I was sick.  I crawled out of bed to go to the FB page and try to get a spot.  It was moving so fast!  I couldn't quite keep up.  Luckily for me, there was a slow down when they got to Heather's post for Leap Year with Amy Adams.   I quickly looked over the cast and who popped out?  John Lithgow.  He has a Bacon Score of 1  and wouldn't you know its for one of my favorite movies! 

It doesn't get more classic Bacon than Footloose.  Plus its full of great 80s music from Kenny Loggins, Bonnie Tyler, Ann Wilson, even Sammy Hagar.  The movie came out just as I was starting to notice music, movies, tv.  In comparison to my brother- who also graduated that year- the kids in this movie were super cool.  Don't tell him I posted that picture.  

I really had a lot of fun watching it again for this post.  If you all get a craving to see it, its on Netflix.  Oh and no, I have not seen the remake.  

On to wardrobe and inspiration.  After the movie was picked I was set on only one thing- the prom-  the maroon tux and the pink dress.  After all the tux is on our graphic for the blog tour!  

Yep that was my plan.  I already had a pretty pink rayon for the dress and ordered some maroon crepe to make the jacket.  Unfortunately- or fortunately- the maroon crepe came in more rusty than I wanted.  Plus I was anticipating colder weather when I took my pictures so the dress seemed a bit thin.  I thought about it and decided to take a more practical approach to my inspiration.  

For myself I would make a top from the pink fabric and add a ruffle somehow to the look.  I had a muslin of McCalls 6512 on my sewing table that was looking like it would be good.  Then I found the ruffled scarf from Ottobre 5/2009 (you can see it in blue and pink on their blog).  I decided to make that with the blouse and my burgundy cords from Jalie's Eleonore pattern.  The plan for one outfit down.  

Now for my date!  

via GIPHY

That was a little trickier.  I started easily with the Sis Boom Ethan shirt, its a standard button down shirt for boys.  Love this pattern, great little details but super easy to put together.  Mine was made out of a white flannel I already had in my stash.  I did find the cuffs a little small.  They fit but I have to unbutton to put the shirt on and I'd rather not with a 3 year old.  I'll fix that on the next one.   And, of course, whats a prom with out a bow tie.  Sis Boom's Freebie Bosco Tie, modified a bit here.  I didn't pleat and will sew the middle down rather than glue.  I made the largest size for fun.  Normally I make the middle or small for this guy.  

I decided to stick with SS for the pants.  I had made the Field Research pants for the the little one a few weeks back and really liked how the pattern came together.  The only problem was that they were just too roomy in the size 3t for the look I wanted here.  (I made the 12 last year and its less roomy, the smaller sizes are wider for diapers and just more movement.)  I ended up slimming them down for the look.  You can read about that in this post.  These are made out of a heavy weight bamboo denim I picked up ages and ages ago at Nature's Fabrics.  I love the weight, perfect for the weather and little boys.  The only draw back is that they end up a wrinkled mess in the dryer.  I need to take them out slightly damp and iron.  

So the last piece was the jacket.  I looked at making the tuxedo jacket but realized that other than this photoshoot, my child was never going to wear it.  I don't think my oldest has ever worn a blazer of any sort and he's 11.  So I needed a jacket that would give me the illusion of a tuxedo.  I chose the EYMM Zander Hoodie and Vest.    I already had a double sided maroon fleece in my stash.  Originally I was going to do it unlined but ended up lining it.  The only trouble I had was the darn zipper!  I ordered one and of course the color was off.  JoAnns and Walmart are sadly lacking in zippers so with the deadline looming I had to make do.  I chose a black metal zipper that was too long.  Using this tutorial mentioned in the pattern, I shortened it.  I scared my mother with the screaming I was doing trying to pry off the stop and then loosing it in the mess that is my husband's tool bench.  I did find it and all went well after that.  

Without further ado, my three year old's version of prom night! Aren't I a lucky girl to have such a date.

Follow me he says.  

 How can I resist.  

Uhm... not exactly the prom night I was expecting, throwing rocks in the creek is loads of fun though.  

As you may have noticed, I didn't get my blouse done but I did make the ruffled scarf.  Its great and super quick to make.  

We didn't have any warehouses to dance in but did spend some time swinging around. 

And one last look.

okay two

And really what more could you ask for from a Kevin Bacon inspired Sew Along!  I hope you enjoyed today, please continue on to check out the talented Katie at the Creative Counselor.  I can't wait to see what she's done.  

Boy Pant Sewing

I tend to mostly blog about sewing for myself and recently it has occurred to me the I do a ton of sewing for the kids too, why not talk about it.  I do enjoy my kid sewing.  So today I'm going talk about sewing up the Scientific Seamstress Field Research Pants.   I bought these in the boy pattern bundle, oh, two years ago?  Something like that.  Crazy.

I finally made the first pair last winter for my oldest to wear to Scouts.  They turned out fabulous!  I made him the zippered version.  He loved them.

 

I was a little surprised to be making him the 11/12- he was only 10 and had always measured smaller in patterns.  Still I trusted the size and they fit perfectly.  There was more than enough room to last through the Summer and into the Fall but not so much that they were oversized.  He is still wearing them these days but they are getting short, at least when he is forced to wear them with the bottom legs.

So a few weeks ago I pulled out the pattern again, this time for my youngest boy child.  I am planning on potty training him over the school break next week- wish me luck!  He is in need of easy pull on/off pants.  His current collection of thrift store pants require a little help.

I printed out the 3t and went to work.  I used the 3t with a 13 inch inseam.  Unlike the pair I made for my oldest these seem to have a lot of width.  When I mentioned it on the Facebook SS Lab page,  Jeanine explained that the smaller sizes have more room for diapers and growing/moving toddler bodies.  Awesome.  Trouble is my toddler is long and lean!  Turned out to be a blessing in disguise though as the outer fabric is thinner than I thought and I was concerned they wouldn't be good for the cooler weather.  I ended up lining these in flannel.  Super easy to do.  I did mine very similar to this tutorial.  They are perfect and these are the best pictures I could get at that time.

This pattern went together so quickly- especially without the zippers.  I love the nice big pocket on the hip and the back pockets fit little hands too!  I did omit the flaps on those pockets.  

As you may have read in the blog, I've been sewing along with the Sew the Show blog for the past two months.  Its been so much fun.  Well this month I was able to snag a spot in their 6 Degrees of Separation Tour!  If you haven't checked it out yet, go!  

I decided to use the Field Research pants as part of my look- you'll have to tune back in on Friday for that post.  Problem was I needed a slimmer fitting pant.  It turns out slimming the FR pant could not be easier!  I simply folded an inch out- so the fold was 1/2 an inch wide- straight down from the top to the hem.  Don't forget to fold the facings too, I forgot on the muslin and had recut them.  

Here are the two pairs from the slimmed down version.  They are great!  I love the roominess of the original pair too.  So I think he'll end up with a few of both.  I should also mention that the elastic on mine comes forward past the side seams.  My boys are on the thin side so they need a little extra tuck on their pants.  The ones I made for my oldest had elastic all around- which was actually a mistake but works really well for him.  On these I stopped the elastic just behind the pocket front.

Before I go I'll share one important rule for sewing for children- MEASURE them EACH time you sew.  No joke, from the time I made the muslin to the final, the boy grew an inch!  So the black pants have a 14 inch inseam.  Fun times.  Here's a quick action shot of the back.  

Do not forget to tune in on Friday for my 6 Degrees post.  You'll see the black pair, a couple of other SS patterns as well as a super cute kid.  

Its the most Wonderful Time of the Year...

PJ time!  Yep at my house, Christmas is pj time.  I've made matching pjs for my family for more years than I can count.  It started way back when I made these aprons for everyone out of the panel fabric you used to find all the time- its a little harder to find these days.  The one below is the one I finally finished for me in 2008.  I had made the originals easily 10 years before as I have a picture of my grandmother and younger brother (with the wild curly hair he had in high school) wearing theirs in front of my mother's tree.

That led to the epic years of pj pants for everyone!  Seriously for a few years there I was making pants every year for every member of my family.  I even added matching shirts for the kiddos.  Fun times.  

Well one baby led to two led to three- I'm not exactly sure how that happened!  Between all the moves- we've moved 6 times since my oldest was born- and the mulitplication of my family- not just mine, we've added 8 new babies to the family since my oldest was born plus 3 significant others (2 of which will be permanent additions in 2016), I stopped making pjs for everyone.  

Now I only subject my immediate family to the craziness!  This is 4 years ago.  My son is wearing the pants I had made 2 years before- I guess they were rather big.  Funny thing is he wore them the next year too!  

Here they are with a stripe and bottom added to them the next year. 

So technically I didn't sew this one, and we didn't get matching homemade that year and I really had a good excuse for that.  

Anyway I'd show you all more but apparently I have been very bad about actually photographing these said jammas.  Uhm... Well last year I did- at least the kids.  The adults got matching pants and wore a solid shirt.  The kids were all about the footie pjs last year.  I made them all one-piece jammas to wear from Kwik Sew that I loved.  Still when this pattern from Peekaboo came out I was so excited as it would make nighttime bathroom trips so much easier.  Unfortunately it is a disappointing pattern.  The fit is awful.  My skinny oldest is in the largest size here- he measured for an 8 but I made the 12. The pants were hard to get on and he's skinny!  I did make them from flannel and the pattern said you could if you upsized.  I went up!  Same with my daughter.  Luckily I had made a muslin for her as I know she has booty and I think she was still wearing nighttime pull ups.  So for her I went up 2 sizes for width and shortened them back down.  They fit okay.  The tops were slightly better but I still went up a size for all three kids.  The baby's pants were fleece so I only went up 1 size.  They ended up being too short though.  I should have thrown the whole pattern away!  I actually made a pair for the baby this year- sized up for width and they fit awful.  

 This year I decided to make things a little easier on myself.  I'm making knit jammas instead!  I'll post about those separately.  So excited!

But really my point for this post was to get to the fact that every year my jammas are the last sewn.  I am usually slapping mine together at the last minute.  Well this year I decided to do mine first!  Now I should mention that the reason mine are always last is that I already own 4 or 5 pairs of Christmas jammas.  After all, I have not been pregnant at Christmas time, and I've made jammas every year for more years than I can count.  Obviously some did not work out as they are gone and there were the random years we were in warm climates for Christmas.  This year though I decided I really need to sew up the flannel I've been hoarding for new jammas for me.  Plus I made a pair of Easy Fits last year that just came out of my winter clothing box and I am wearing one day too many because I can't bear to put them in the laundry to wait for them to be clean again!  I  mean really, my laundry fairies are not working fast enough.

Since this post has been long enough, you'll have to check me out on The Scientific Seamstress Blog
tomorrow!

Another TV inspired Creation!

This is definitely the time of year where I sew a lot!  I love to sew for others and for myself.  I'm not that good though about focus.  Hence the ungodly number of UFOs (unfinished projects) hanging around in my craft room.  I do vow every year not to cut without sewing but I just get so excited and sometimes cutting out new projects is more relaxing than actually making them.

Well the Sew the Show Facebook page has really helped with the focus part.  I had fun last month thinking about the Walking Dead and those costumes.  This month the show was Firefly.  If you all haven't seen it, its a very short lived- as in 14 episodes- sci-fi series with a huge cult following.  It has a sort of Western meets space thing going on with some Asian influences in ambiance.  I tend to go for sci-fi and it surprised me I hadn't seen the show yet.  Lucky for me Netflix has it all there.  Yeah.  It was fun to watch- and I was very disappointed that there isn't more!  Oh well.

There are lots of fun things that I could have made from this series.  But the one thing that kept sticking out for me was Zoe's leather vest.  Dang, she's wearing a grungy shirt, tight pants but this vest, so awesome!

After thinking and thinking about it I decided to go for it.  I was pretty sure I had leather somewhere in my upcycle stash around somewhere... Plus I was pretty sure I had a princess seamed dress pattern already so I was half way there.

I decided to use the Sis Boom Rebecca as my base.  While the neckline is completely different it has the princess seams I wanted and it is very quick to put together.

I made a first muslin with this random poly suiting I've had floating around my craft room for ages.  Seemed to work well enough.  I needed to tighten it quite a bit and lower the neckline.  I was planning another muslin but ended up just going for the final product instead.

Well, despite the pictures above, I was really digging the look.  I decided that leather wasn't really going to work out for me.  Its just not the look that I really go for on a daily basis and I didn't want to make something for those random date nights that I keep hoping will be come more regular.  So I decided to do my final in comfy stretch fabrics.  

I used the same stretch burgundy corduroy from the Jalie jeans I made a few weeks back and this awesome quilted coated knit fabric I picked up at Joanns.  I love it- you'll see a few other projects in this as well.  The picture really does it no justice.  

The one thing I decided during construction was to omit the zipper.  One I didn't feel like putting it in and two, it suits my lifestyle for the vest to be a little looser than Zoe's.  Since I was using the stretchy fabrics it is super easy to just pull over my head.  

Now I had planned to do a more dressed up photo shoot- pencil skirt or skinny jeans and boots- but life and the weather got a little in the way.   I've had the vest hanging on my bathroom door for a week to take the pictures and just decided this morning to wear it and get them over with.  So this is what I wore to church this morning.  The pants are my modified Judy pants, so comfy but not the most stylish pair I could be wearing.  The rain did give me a chance to pull out my fun umbrella.  You cannot see in the pictures but when it gets wet, little cherry blossoms appear on the reddish part.  

Its really hard to see the details of the back, I'll take more pictures when I have a chance.  The back actually has SIX darts!  I wanted to shaped it as well as I could while still being able to slip it on over my head.  I think I did a good job.

And with that I need to get back to my sewing room!  I have so much going on, I am so excited.  The next few weeks are going to be so busy both in my sewing room and out.  

In my sewing room I'll be focusing on jammas- its that season again.  We'll get our traditional Christmas jammas and I've been living in these pjs the last few weeks, so I need another pair before hubby throws me permanently out of bed (this is the baby's bed).  

AND the super exciting news!  I'll be part of the Sew the Show 6 Degrees of Separation Tour! You can just make out my little head at the bottom there next to Katie.  I've already started working on these pieces.  Hopefully they will turn out as fun as they are in my head!

Lastly- I told you its a crazy season.  I am participating the GYPO Winter Style Challenge.  While I have most of the items on the new list there are a few things I'll be adding from my sewing room.  I have the red wool just waiting to become a great coat.  So fun!